Direction 1: Civil Society

Supporting and strengthening civil society actors is one of CTC’s objectives. In this priority area we work with the following target groups:

Public organisations are the ones who have significant influence over the democratic development of the country by supporting public participation in environmental, cultural, social and political affairs, entrenching just and democratic values, creating models of social services for and improving the quality of life of vulnerable groups.

Even though Community organisations have the same organizational-legal status as public organizations, we still prefer to treat community organisations as a distinct group because of their utmost significance for developmental processes at a municipal, community and village level.  We believe that local democracy thrives where there are strong local and community organisations. Associations and coalitions – the recognition of the importance of networking, cooperation and joint initiatives is vital to the development of any state. Therefore, providing support to coalitions and networks which increase the likelihood of resolving issues, is one of our core objectives. For instance, CTC has provided necessary support the Georgian Care Platform and is one of the founders of the Education for All coalition. CTC is committed to taking care of future developments of these networks as one of its core objectives.  Believing in the power of a single individual, the team at CTC has great confidence in active citizens/civic activists, who often are at the forefront of great social changes. We pledge to Informal interest groups – associations of citizens striving for improvements in various fields.

Forms of our work and services we offer:

1. Running and maintaining open database of information and educational resources
2. Training of civic activists in community mobilisation and advocacy
3. Offering training programmes in organisational management, project planning, leadership and fundraising for civil society organisations
4. Raising funds for the purpose of awarding thematic projects and supporting organisational development
5. Carrying out research and publishing reports for creating knowledge base in the following priority areas: practices of public organisation financing and models of fundraising, entrepreneurship and innovations in social and public spheres, structures of accountability 

Direction 2: Good governance and effective local self-governance

Introduction of good governance practices in public administration is of utmost importance for successful development of public processes.  CTC enjoys fruitful cooperation with the public sector stretching over decades. We are very well positioned to offer public agencies various services for institutional development. We also implement projects and participate in wide-scale programmes pertaining to the public sector development.

This programme focuses on public servants and agencies. CTC offers a number of training curricula specifically developed to accommodate training needs in planning, management and policy-making.

CTC pays close attention to development of local self-governance. We strongly believe that strong local self-governance shapes the democratic development of the country and contributes to the welfare of its citizens. In addition to offering specialised training modules, CTC and its partners work closely to produce body of research in the areas pertaining to advocacy of local self-governance and decentralisation reforms as well as of regional development policy and equal development of the country’s regions. Our work in this area also includes development and introduction of various instruments for municipal development and training components.

Forms of our work and services we offer:

• Professional development programme for public servants in fostering their personal and professional competences and managerial skills in the following priority areas: policy analysis and policy-making, developing budgets, project management, leadership skills, effective communication and time management skills
• Collecting and processing data for Local Self-Governance Index (www.lsgindex.org) in cooperation with IDFI and Open Society Institute. The index is designed to assess accountability and transparency of all Georgian municipalities and help municipal authorities to take a lead in identifying interactions for self-assessment improving their performance
• Introducing self-assessment and assessment tools for quality of municipal services
• Carrying out research and supporting policies with respect to regional development.

Direction 3: Community development and entrepreneurship

Poverty and unemployment continue to severely affect the country’s population. Vulnerable groups, who have little capacity to cope with these problems, are particularly affected. One of CTC’s priorities is to provide support to vulnerable groups so that they can improve their social and economic standing more effectively.

At the core of the programme lie interventions directed at rural communities, defined as groups of people sharing socio-economic and cultural conditions, as well as interests, problems and needs. More specifically, the programme focuses on households running subsistence farming, entrepreneurs residing in tourist zones (owners of guesthouses, small arts and craft workshops, tour guides etc), and women farmers living in rural areas.

As of today, the programme comprises three following directions:

1. Training in core competences: improving those skills and competences which are vital for the engagement in social and economic life through informal education and consultancy. Training-consultancy modules serve to foster core competences, entrepreneurial thinking and skills, which in turn, will contribute to greater participation, improved employment opportunities and skills necessary for effective self-employment, as well as to the development of micro small entrepreneurship.

2. Community mobilisation and engagement: through various projects, including those offering small grants and informal education, the programme supports community cohesion, civic engagement and active public life at a community level.
3. Supporting small businesses and providing start-up finding – recently undertaken studies and research have confirmed that micro enterprises have proved to be effective in three following directions: increase in household income, integration in the society and employment and increased self-esteem. CTC has been involved in the development of small business since 2005. In addition to providing trainings in small business administration, CTC continues to improve access to capital for small business through grant competitions in cooperation with donor community and a wide range of partners.

Direction 4: Initiatives in education

CTC has been an active player in the field of education since 2010. We believe that sustainable development cannot be achieved without quality and accessible education. Better Education programmme aims to empower education institutions and support continuous professional training and retraining of professionals in the field of education.

CTC’s endeavors have led to creating an Education for All coalition which currently comprises more than 15 Georgian civil society organizations. The members of the coalition are avid advocates of changes in the field of general education and proponents of an adequate education ecosystem. CTC also runs a National Teacher Award campaign, which is part of Global Teacher Prize and the most prestigious competition in the area of popularization of a teacher’s profession.

Target groups of this direction are:

• Professional associations of teachers
• Social enterprises acting in the field of education
• Vocational training centers/colleges
• Schools and school leaders

Forms of our work and services we offer:

• School-Lab programme which aims to accumulate and disseminate knowledge and experience pertaining to introducing and managing changes in schools
• Technical support (training, consultancies) to innovative initiatives and social entrepreneurship in the field of education
• Support to the provision of short-term vocational training courses tailored to labour market needs